A MAN who set fire to a pile of his wife's clothes after a Valentine's Day argument was yesterday jailed for 18 months.

Mark Osborne said he wanted to "put the wind up" the woman because she had used her maiden name during a visit to hospital.

Judge Peter Armstrong, at Teesside Crown Court, told the 52-year-old: "I'm quite sure you did more than that. You just snapped."

Police were called to the house in Gibbon Street, Bishop Auckland, after 11pm on February 14, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson.

The court heard how Osborne poured lighter fuel on the clothes and lit it, causing what his wife described as a "fireball".

He quickly put out the flames by stamping on them, and caused a scorch mark to a pair of jeans.

In an interview, he told police the couple had been arguing for hours, and he had been drinking. His wife was in bed close to the clothing at the time.

The woman said in an impact statement that the ordeal had left her "feeling awful" and her husband knew she was frightened of people in drink, because she had been exposed to drunken abuse in the past.

Osborne, who has no previous convictions, admitted a charge of attempting to commit arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Judge Armstrong also imposed a restraining order for three years, to keep the couple apart.

Stephen Hammil, mitigating, said: "It is conceded it was committed within he context of domestic violence, and the defendant was intoxicated.

"There has been no previous domestic violence in this relationship, or any earlier ones.

"He immediately extinguished the fire, and given the brief nature of the offence, it could rightly be described as an isolated incident.

"What matters most is he has to live with what he has done to put the person he cares about the most at such risk."

Judge Armstrong told Osborne: "You were in a bad mood for various reasons.

"Your wife had gone to bed, and you went into the room several times and eventually the offence was committed."